I think it is Diane Duane who used the idea of generation ships when the ancient Vulcans left their homeworld and renamed themselves Rihannsu. Somehow Earth came to know them as Romulans.
In The Romulan Way, the migration to Romulus and Remus took more than a hundred years of relativistic time, equivalent to almost five hundred years Vulcan (rest) time. Given Vulcan lifespan, maybe not exactly “generation” ships but not FTL, either.
I really enjoyed Duane’s history of the ancient Vulcans and Romulans. I thought it was very well thought out and recounted very effectively. The interspersed story of an undercover Federation agent disguised as a Romulan largely left me cold.
Ummm...do we know Chang designed it? are we sure he didn't get a sketch from Jefferies as a starting point?
You might've seen this before, but when I did an Earth-Romulan war game pitch for Playmates I used that Jein model (archived here) as a starting point. You can see something like it in the top game mockup... ...which led to the sketches below... at the upper left of which is another class of ship of in that vein, which I showed to Andy Probert who suggested it might make a better fighter, so I ran with that.
By any chance does anyone know when it was decided Romulan vessels would be green? Is there somewhere in the archives Romulan ships were meant to be green? Ever since the dreadful TSFS movie the BOP has been green.* *Sorry guys, Kruge's ship looks more Romulan than Klingon; that terrible movie should've established Kruge's thuggish nature could've stolen or hijacked the vessel than being a Klingon ship.
As I've heard it told, the Bad Guys in TSFS were supposed to be Romulan, not Klingon. The script was changed before shooting but after the models were ordered.
No, I have not seen this before. Thanks for sharing it. I myself never cared for the idea that one of Matt Jefferies preliminary designs for the Enterprise was used for the Daedalus class, or that they were used in the Romulan War, and I also never cared for Jein's design for the Romulan ship (at least as an Earth-Romulan war vessel.) And I certainly never cared for the NX class as a contemporary design for that era. Ever since I could remember, I always took Spock's line about 'primitive space vessels' to heart, and presumed that the war took place on ships more akin to submarine warfare than anything else (although ironically Jein's ship does resemble a sub.) Super-cramped conditions, small slow moving ships, carrying nukes rather than any kind of beam weapons, etc., powered by nuclear fission or fusion rather than warp engines.
The Klingon battlecruiser in TMP was painted greenish even though it does not look that way in the finished film. That coloration was carried over to the BOP. I suspect that influenced the decision on how to tint the Romulan ship in TNG and forward.
Design wise I’m not crazy about the Daedalus-class because of how it was done. Imagine if the Enterprise hadn’t been fleshed out from the initial concept—it would have looked less graceful and more awkward. The Daedalus looks like they took Jefferies’ sketch and stuck too it exactly as is rather than fleshing it out to make it look less awkward and somewhat more, well, heroic. That said some fans have made the basic concept look better.
The TOS Klingon battle cruiser was actually light green and violet despite looking almost white onscreen.
I like the ugliness of the Daedalus Class. They look scrabbled together from easy to manufacture parts, almost guerilla engineered. It's the antithesis of the Constitution class.
Partly because of the spherical hull. Those are easier pressure vessels to make and they don't require any complicated engineering modelling. It's why the Soviets used them for Vostok and Voskhod (and why they look IMO, also clunker then American biconic craft of the same time). I know the Jeffries drawings did not include them, but the oil-barrels-welded-together nacelles feed into the whole look. Enterprise looks like something truly sci fi, engineering decisions made that we can't understand. Daedalus looks like something a cash-strapped Steve Zissou would have skippered in a space exploation sequel to The Life Aquatic. I like them both, for different reasons (the same way he wears an old Vostok dive watch, compared to Coustau's elegant Doxa or Rolexes. I can admire the Rolex. I own the Vostok )
You mean the solid rocket boosters Greg used on his model for the nacelles. I don’t consider that what they actually would have done. Edit because the following was a general statement about common criticisms of the “Daudelus” design: As to the sphere, I go back to the Discovery in 2001, because that’s a sphere and it looks terrific. Criticizing those kinds of sketches is like criticizing the concept sketches of the Enterprise with a saucer. Those look just as crude. It’s that last 5% it makes all the difference.
I haven't criticized anything. I had nothing but admiration. I didn't realized model SRB's were used by Jein for the nacelles. Makes sense.
Thanks, I was wondering. Project Orion I'd heard of, it was battleship in the phrase that threw me off.